As Mumbai was celebrating the occasion of Christmas with bright lights and decorated trees, the students from the city colleges become santa for the underprivileged children.
St Andrewʼs College, Bandra, is encouraging the students to donate the goods to the orphanages which are no longer used by the students.
“Instead of a red Santas, we are going ahead with a Yellow (‘Yeh-loʼ) Santa Claus on our campus. Staff and students have been encouraged to donate clothes, books and toys, which can be donated to an orphanage,” said principal Marie Fernandes.
"The college has already received donations from the students and is planning to take the help ofcharity groups to distribute the items collected," principal added.
Students of the Usha Pravin Gandhi College, Vile Parle, also collected the items to help several non-governmental organizations (NGOs)in the city. "We have set up boxes at various corridors, in which students can put items they want to donate. It can be anything from clothes to food. While some will be donated this week, the collection drive will go on till January when we will participate in the Joy of Giving Week,” said principal Anju Kapoor.
Blood donation camp was also a common sight this year.
“We decided to give the gift of life to people and 100 students donated blood last week. We conduct such drives more than once a year. This time we decided to do it before Christmas,” said Principal Dinesh Panjwani of RD National College.
He further said "his year, the college collaborated with a national bank and donated the blood it collected to a government hospital."